Random musings from a "rabid" reader. The title comes from my admiration of John Updike and his Rabbit Angstrom series.
When I read a review of a book I have not read, I only read enough to get a general idea of the content. If it sounds interesting, I make a note of the review, read the book, and only then do I go back and read the review completely.
I intend these short musings to convey that spirit and idea to the readers of "RabbitReader."
--Chiron

NEXT UP: Lydia's Party by Margaret Hawkins

New novel by the author of A Year of Cats and Dogs and How to Survive a Natural Disaster.

Best of 2015

FICTION

1. How It All Began by Penelope Lively

2. Searching for Caleb by Anne Tyler

POETRY

1. Becoming the Villainess by Jeanine Hall Gailey

Best of 2014

Poetry

1. The Bones Poems by William Virgil Davis

2. Blue Horses by Mary Oliver

Fiction

1. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

1. 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

3. The Secret History by Donna Tartt

3. Stoner by John Williams

5. The Pure Gold Baby by Margaret Drabble

6. Colorless Tsukur Tazaki and His Years of Pilgramage by Haruki Murakami

7. Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

8. The Narrow Road to the Far North by Richard Flanagan

9. The Obituary Writer& An Italian Wife by Ann Hood

10. The Children Act by Ian McEwan

11. Stone Mattress: Nine Tales by Margaret Atwood

12. The Bees by Laline Paull

13. The Happiest People in the World by Brock Clarke

14. Honeymoon by Patrick Modiano

YA Fiction

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

Non-Fiction

A Poetry Companion by Mary Oliver

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Queen's Bed: An Intimate History of Elizabeth's Court by Anna Whitelock

Sunday, March 04, 2012

For many years, I have loved and admired Homer’s Odyssey. I never spent much time soaking up The Iliad, because the war and violence depicted never held much interest for me. However, Alexander’s excellent commentary on The Iliad, has completely changed my view of this great epic.

A professor once said, “There is only one story, and that is The Odyssey. All other stories flow from it.” At first, I thought this implausible, but the more I read, the more parallels I began to notice. Joseph Campbell’s monumental work The Hero with a Thousand Faces enlightened me further – not only to The Odyssey, but to many other pieces of literature from all cultures and time periods.

My world lit class took up Iliad this semester, and I decided to read this book to add something to the discussion. Not only did I completely enjoy this well-written and thoroughly documented book, but I greatly increased my knowledge of The Iliad and The Odyssey. I now see these two foundations of western literature as mirror images of each other, as well as complimentary windows into the worlds of the Achaeans and Trojans.

The Odyssey focuses on one main male character with a host of interesting, alluring, and powerful women. I have always loved the stories of Kalypso, Circe, and Nausicaa – not to forget “the grey-eyed Goddess," Athena. Iliad, on the other hand centers on three women – Helen of Greece, Andromache, the wife of Hector, and Breseis, cousin of Hector. The rest of the women are all in the background, and Achilles and many warriors and kings provide important elements that move the plot.

In addition to Achilles strong anti-war stance, his anger at Agamemnon’s seizure of Breseis – a prize he won in the initial battle before the walls of Troy -- provides the dramatic conflict which threatens the invading army of Acheans.

Alexander also draws some interesting parallels with the 20th century. Achilles says,

“I for my part did not come here for the sake of the Trojan spearmen to fight against them, since to me they have done nothing. Never yet have they driven away my cattle or my horses, never in Phthia where the soil is rich and men grow great did theyspoil my harvest, since indeed there is much that lies between us,the shadowy mountains and the echoing sea” (20).

Alexander then quotes the words of Muhammad Ali when he refused to submit to the draft, claiming the Viet Cong had never done him any harm (21).

Throughout the book, Alexander highlights the absurdity of war, and even though the men fight for glory, Homer tells us there is no glory in dying. She brings home the real lessons of war. She describes what Achilles believes, “Life is more precious than glory; this is the unheroic truth disclosed by the greatest warrior at Troy… glory…is achieved through heroic poetry, in other words, through epic” (98).

This book belongs on my desert island shelf along with my copies of The Iliad and The Odyssey. 5 stars